Ordonez Second in MVP Voting

The results of the American League MVP voting were released today and, as expected, Magglio Ordonez finished second to Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez was the near unanimous winner garnering all but two first place votes. Two hometown writers, Tom Gage and Jim Hawkins, reportedly gave their first place votes to Ordonez. However, Rodriguez clearly deserved the award this year despite Magglio's magnificent season.

Ordonez had the better batting average (.363 to .314) but Rodriguez topperd him in most other categories including runs created (154 to 142), OPS (1.067 to 1.029), homers (54 to 28), RBI (156 to 139) and runs (143 to 117). For those who consider this to be a team award as well as an individual award, Rodriguez also helped get the Yankees into the playoffs while the Tigers stayed home. There could be no other winner this year but ARod.

Others Tiger receiving votes were Curtis Granderson (1oth place) and Placido Polanco (19th). Personally, I would have ranked Granderson a little higher but he was probably hurt by his relatively new star status, his team failing to make the post-season and competition for votes with two teammates. I certainly would not hold any of that against him but might knock him down a notch for his inability to hit left-handers and his occasional platooning.